Game: Spitballin' with Science!

jjdebenedictis · Feb 12, 2015

Hi all! I was thinking we need a game to play in this subforum. Here's what I propose:

1) One person posts a link to a science article they find interesting and also summarizes what the article is about.

2) Commenters then brainstorm story ideas based on the science in that article.

Riffing on someone else's idea with your own variation is encouraged! Creating running jokes is welcome! Let's make Science Fact our playground.

If you post the link, you're welcome to start the ball rolling with your own story ideas. You also don't need to wait for people to finish talking about the last article before posting a new one.

I'll start with this:

Summary: South America was the Gilligan's Island of monkeys. 36 million years ago, monkeys from Africa traveled to South America via the ocean.

When Monkeys Surfed to South America

PS - I'm also amenable to humourous flash fiction pieces based on the article's ideas!

.

Maxx · Feb 12, 2015

jjdebenedictis said:
Hi all! I was thinking we need a game to play in this subforum. Here's what I propose:

1) One person posts a link to a science article they find interesting and also summarizes what the article is about.

2) Commenters then brainstorm story ideas based on the science in that article.

Riffing on someone else's idea with your own variation is encouraged! Creating running jokes is welcome! Let's make Science Fact our playground.

If you post the link, you're welcome to start the ball rolling with your own story ideas. You also don't need to wait for people to finish talking about the last article before posting a new one.

I'll start with this:

Summary: South America was the Gilligan's Island of monkeys. 36 million years ago, monkeys from Africa traveled to South America via the ocean.

When Monkeys Surfed to South America

PS - I'm also amenable to humourous flash fiction pieces based on the article's ideas!

.

Couldn't handle the monkeys thing, but this triggered some flashbacks:

http://www.livescience.com/49666-prehistoric-humans-psychoactive-drugs.html

Right. So this is news? Listen, I went to a small liberal arts college in the early 1970s: evidence of primordial (note spelling) use of drugs was taken as self-evident.
Which leads to a brief story within a story: there were a lot of earnest primordial dudellike anthro associate professors -- they were curiously similar -- I think escaping the draft somehow made them rumbled -- anyway -- I have basically put one or another of them into every story I've ever written, whether they were primordial drug users or not.

RandomWords · Feb 13, 2015

jjdebenedictis said:
I'll start with this:

Summary: South America was the Gilligan's Island of monkeys. 36 million years ago, monkeys from Africa traveled to South America via the ocean.

When Monkeys Surfed to South America
.

I wonder how much closer together Africa and South America were 36 million years ago.

I don't have anything to contribute at the moment, but I clicked on the Mastodon article at that link and learned that Mastodon basically means "boob tooth".
So, there's that.

jjdebenedictis · Feb 13, 2015

SPIT-BALLIN'!

Okay, story idea based on the primordial drug use:

Two cavewomen have discovered the delightful effects of a mushroom that grows in a hard-to-access part of the forest that no one except them knows about. Trading these mushrooms with their clan is making them rich in meat and mating opportunities, but when the shaman tries the mushrooms, suddenly being the clan's lone 'shroom-dealers is a liability, not an boon. The shaman is adamant that he have access to lots of mushrooms, and that no one else -- including the discoverers -- ever take any.

Slogging through the dangerous forest to gather the 'shrooms without any benefit to themselves would be annoying enough for the two cavewomen. But telling the shaman where to find the 'shrooms so he can gather his own would be worse, because what the mushrooms keep telling the shaman is that he is God, and his clan must subjugate all others in order for him to be worshiped properly. And he plans to start with the clan's worst enemies that live across the river -- enemies who are more than capable of wiping them all out.

RandomWords · Feb 14, 2015

A) This reminds me that someday I have to read Kim Stanley Robinson's "Shaman", and
B) that's such a good story idea -- the mushrooms -- I would want to read that book, too.

jjdebenedictis · Feb 14, 2015

RandomWords said:
A) This reminds me that someday I have to read Kim Stanley Robinson's "Shaman", and
B) that's such a good story idea -- the mushrooms -- I would want to read that book, too.

Your turn now! Make up a story idea too! Or a writing snippet! C'mon, all the ~~cool~~ dorky kids are doing it, and goodness knows, dorks have more fun.

Kylabelle · Feb 15, 2015

This one's fun:

...quantum mechanics suggests that the universe did not start with the Big Bang but instead has existed forever, which means that the cosmos did not have a beginning and does not have an end.

The duo's proposition was based on a new model they have created that applied quantum correction terms to Einstein's theory of general relativity, which predicts that the universe originated when an infinitely dense single point exploded outwards about 13.8 billion years ago.

This state, known as singularity, poses several problems for scientists because it did not take into account what happened before or at the moment of the Big Bang. By removing singularity, the model predicts that the universe does not have a beginning and has always existed in quantum potential before it collapsed into the Big Bang.

Spitballin':

Time travel. The way you do it is you aim for that non-existent moment that isn't really a singularity. The closer you get to it, the farther you rebound from it. But the problem is, you never know if you're actually traveling in the same timestream you left. In other words, all the returned time travelers may be parallel versions. This all completely screws with various legal issues, such as inheritance, provenance of evidence, etc.

Controversy grows, with large sums of money offered for anyone who can prove without a doubt either possibility: Is there a single timestream? Or are their infinite timestreams which intermingle?

Did that make sense?

No?

jjdebenedictis · Feb 15, 2015

Ooh! Ooh! So cool.

I've heard of theoreticians "softening" black hole singularities by taking quantum fluctuations into account, but not with the Big Bang. Great story idea too! Let's see if I can riff on it...

SPIT-BALLIN'!

"Look, it's really incredible talking to God and all," said Arush, "especially for an athiest -- I mean, the absence of any smiting is something I'm really feeling appreciative of. Holy shit, yes."

YOU COULD LAY OFF ON THE MISAPPLICATION OF 'HOLY', IF YOU DON'T MIND.

"Um, yes. Sorry. But anyway. There's this theory that says the universe always existed. That the Big Bang wasn't really the start. So that means You aren't actually a creator, right? Because there was nothing to create; it was already there."

I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT YOU'D BE MORE INTERESTED IN THE WHOLE 'AM I SOME OTHER TIMESTREAM'S ME?' QUESTION. I MEAN, THAT ELON MUSK CODGER DID PUT UP FOUR MILLION BUCKS.

"Look, you're God. Why even are you even asking me things? You know the answers."

YES. YOU'RE A NERD AND YOU WERE ALWAYS GOING TO ASK THE BIG QUESTIONS. I KNOW. STILL, I AM ENJOYING HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH A HUMAN WHO IS NOT ON METH. IT HAS BEEN A FEW MILLENNIA.

"So? You're not really the creator, right?"

NO, I AM. IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS NOTHING BUT ME. SO WHAT DID I MAKE THE UNIVERSE OUT OF? ME. I AM A CREATOR JUST AS A HUMAN MOTHER IS A CREATOR. I MADE YOU OF MY OWN FLESH.

"Whoa. Really? So all those new-agey weirdos are right about our intrinsic holiness and 'inner goddess'? We're bits of you?"

WELL, IT EXPLAINS THE LACK OF SMITING, DOESN'T IT?

Kylabelle · Feb 15, 2015

RandomWords · Feb 18, 2015

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31519875

http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~emamajek/flyby.html

Okay, I'm a reeeally slow writer and therefore not cut out for this. But seeing as how modern human behaviors started roughly the same time period as the close approach, I was thinking about a frozen city orbiting the dwarf stars. Their sentinel computers see our inhabitable solar system appear in their sky. The first line was:

The lights came on for the first time in half a million years.

blacbird · Feb 19, 2015

RandomWords said:
I wonder how much closer together Africa and South America were 36 million years ago.

A little, but not a lot. Africa and South America began to rift apart about 200 million years ago, and have been doing so ever since. So 36/200 = ~ 1/6. Meaning they were about 5/6 the distance apart that they are today.

You need to take my Introduction to Physical Geology class. There will be an exam Friday.

caw

Kylabelle · Feb 21, 2015

Okay, let's do some spitballin'. I guess everyone has read about the limpet teeth discovery by now, how they are made of a material stronger than titanium and even stronger than spider silk.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/limpet-teeth-are-strongest-natural-material-known-1.2965059

I've been trying to noodle up some spitball material out of this all week. What I gleaned from my skim of an article or two was that the strength has to do with a structural aspect that means the material retains its strength at larger sizes instead of becoming weaker. Has to do with the thinness of the fibers or some such.

Breeding giant limpets in order to harvest their teeth? Now, I know that's not the way to do it; instead, researchers will work toward copying the material. But, say it turns out to be really expensive to do that. Or for some reason I haven't thought up, impossible. Whereas it would be easy to clone limpets. Breed them or modify them for size and then clone them and harvest their teeth.

What problems does this present? Do the limpets revolt? Does limpet culture turn out to deplete some vital resource? Do they become necessary so fast in, say a military or an industrial application that continuing to produce the limpet teeth material is considered top priority no matter what gets destroyed in the process?

I dunno. Limpet teeth. Where can you go with it?

jjdebenedictis · Feb 21, 2015

Kylabelle said:
I dunno. Limpet teeth. Where can you go with it?

A giant space-battleship made out of ONE GIGANTIC LIMPET TOOTH. That's where.

"First ensign, to the dentine! Ready the crown lasers, and raise the enamel shields. All hands, prepare for battle!"

Kylabelle · Feb 21, 2015

jjdebenedictis · Feb 21, 2015

RandomWords said:
eeing as how modern human behaviors started roughly the same time period as the close approach, I was thinking about a frozen city orbiting the dwarf stars. Their sentinel computers see our inhabitable solar system appear in their sky. The first line was:

The lights came on for the first time in half a million years.

Ooh! And then it can be a hard-scrabble struggle on the part of the sentinels' robots to get the embryonic life they've been preserving down onto the planet, because they know they'll never make it close enough to another suitable world before their systems break down entirely. They spend all their resources in one last-ditch effort to launch their "children" into a real life upon a real world, while knowing the bio-formed embryos will grow up thinking their host-species mothers are their real mothers. The children will live, but the sentinels will disappear as thoroughly as if they had never existed.

Kylabelle · Mar 7, 2015

No science happened for weeks, and then this story broke the silence:

Diagnosis by Dog Nose! Yes, cancer-sniffing dogs will soon join the ranks of drug-sniffing dogs, cadaver-sniffing dogs, and plain old anything-sniffing dogs. These future canine medical practitioners will offer cheaper and more humane testing for whatever variety of diagnoses they are trained to make.

Wouldn't you rather be fsnorfled by a friendly puppeh than subjected to, say, an MRI?

jjdebenedictis · Mar 7, 2015

Kylabelle said:
Wouldn't you rather be fsnorfled by a friendly puppeh than subjected to, say, an MRI?

Could I not have both? </nerd> </wouldTotallyGetAnMRIforFun>

ETA: As an aside, I had a friend who became a nurse and said she could totally tell when a wound was starting going septic by the smell when she changed the bandages.

jjdebenedictis · Mar 7, 2015

SPITBALLIN'!

When the alien diplomats toured Rachel's hospital, she thought she'd only be shaking a few tentacles, smiling until her face hurt, and showing off Molly, her cancer-sniffing dog. Instead, when Molly clearly indicates that one of the diplomats has cancer, Rachel and her dog are suddenly swept into a very hush-hush interplanetary crisis.

With no Earthly drug interventions possible, thanks to alien biochemistry, and no one on Earth expert enough in alien physiology to perform surgery, the only way to save the diplomat's life is to get him home, fast, for treatment. Except, in the alien's culture, the death or premature return of a diplomat is always seen as a complete collapse of relations, and the less-friendly factions of his government are sure to seize on the diplomat's return as an excuse for war.

Earth's only hope lies in an alien custom called "The onus of the saviour", where someone who has saved another person's life is permitted to take over their duties while the savee heals, in order to preserve the savee's status in society. The problem is, an Earthling can hardly act as an ambassador to Earth, so now Rachel is on a ship back to the alien homeworld to establish friendlier relations with those not-so-friendly elements of the diplomat's government.

And so is Molly, because it's not Rachel who saved the diplomat's life -- it was her dog. If Rachel can't teach her intelligent but highly-energetic pooch to act like an ambassador while Rachel "translates" Molly's words for the aliens' benefit, then neither she nor her dog will ever see Earth again because there won't be an Earth anymore.

jjdebenedictis · Mar 7, 2015

Anyone? Anyone? *bounces around in puppyish excitement*

Here's an article about a robot that delivers meals, medicines, and linens and also picks up medical waste in a hospital.

RandomWords · Mar 8, 2015

jjdebenedictis said:
SPITBALLIN'!

When the alien diplomats toured Rachel's hospital, she thought she'd only be shaking a few tentacles, smiling until her face hurt, and showing off Molly, her cancer-sniffing dog. Instead, when Molly clearly indicates that one of the diplomats has cancer, Rachel and her dog are suddenly swept into a very hush-hush interplanetary crisis...

Your powers of plotting are amazing. If I follow you, will you teach me your ways?

/derail

jjdebenedictis · Mar 9, 2015

RandomWords said:
Your powers of plotting are amazing. If I follow you, will you teach me your ways?

/derail

D'aw, thankies!

But you don't want my ways. My ways lead to too much spitballing and not nearly enough actual writing! :dire:

LeadHead · Mar 10, 2015

Oooh, this looks fun!

Spitballin' on the robot hospitals:

As the doctor trundled into my room, I turned towards him and watched as he wheeled his way towards me. I was hoping for good news.

"You will die," his monotonous voice said.

Luckily, I'd steeled myself for that. "Why?" I asked.

"There are no donors," his synthetic voice said.

"Well, that is unfortunate. How long do I have?"

"4 hours. Then your battery will run out."

"Thank you, doctor. Have I been a good machine? Will I go to heaven?"

"I don't care."

That's the problem with robots - no bedside manner.

=====

Sorry, I don't have an article to add. I'll try and find one tomorrow

jjdebenedictis · Mar 11, 2015

Yay! Great snippet, LeadHead!

LeadHead · Mar 11, 2015

Ok, here's an article I read recently. A computer program that learns to play video games from trial and error and can generate its own strategies that its programmers hadn't thought of:

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ogram-capable-of-learning-tasks-independently

Can anyone spitball that?

RDArmstrong · Mar 12, 2015

LeadHead said:
Ok, here's an article I read recently. A computer program that learns to play video games from trial and error and can generate its own strategies that its programmers hadn't thought of:

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ogram-capable-of-learning-tasks-independently

Can anyone spitball that?

An app that advises you on all manner of decisions for the owner is created. Its operation depends on offering advise for problems and your acceptance of this advise is noted along with a positive, negative or neutral outcome from taking/not taking this advice. The app essentially learns you and is able to make decisions for you, from deciding what you want to eat to deciding what career you should have.
Eventually a majority of people become reliant on this decision-making app and it's this point that people start using the collective data to design decision pattern packages that determine a decision path to being anything you ever wanted. These packages cost billions.
It's in this world that you could create a myriad of plot lines, perhaps one of these packages lands in someones hands or perhaps people start hacking peoples decision maps to control them.
Themes would be destiny, control and what it is to be human.

Game: Spitballin' with Science!

is watching you via her avatar

Got the hang of it, here

is watching you via her avatar

is watching you via her avatar

unaccounted for

is watching you via her avatar

unaccounted for

unaccounted for

is watching you via her avatar

unaccounted for

is watching you via her avatar

unaccounted for

is watching you via her avatar

is watching you via her avatar

is watching you via her avatar

is watching you via her avatar

is watching you via her avatar